{"id":27442,"date":"2025-07-27T08:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27442\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T08:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:29:13","slug":"the-making-of-a-lioness-as-told-by-their-parents-extra-jobs-bank-loans-and-sleeping-in-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27442\/","title":{"rendered":"The making of a Lioness \u2013 as told by their parents: Extra jobs, bank loans and sleeping in meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel James thinks back to one night shift he worked following an 11am game his son Reece played at Norwich City. Nigel was running his own coaching business alongside 12-hour overnight stints as a security guard, earning \u00a35 an hour to supplement the family income. He started at 10pm to relieve an agency worker and, exhausted, took his colleague\u2019s word that floor two was locked. At 5:30am, the cleaner arrived to find the place had been robbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police came, so did the bosses of the company,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t lose my job. To this day, I don\u2019t know how. If I had, how would I have provided for my family? No one else in security would have hired me. We were always just swimming above water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel, 48, is recalling the years he and Emma spent ferrying their son Reece to Chelsea, daughter Lauren to Arsenal and eldest son Joshua to Reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to nod off during some of my shifts,\u201d he confesses, while meeting at a restaurant in Cobham, just outside London and close to where Reece and Lauren train for Chelsea. \u201cThere were a couple of times when I could have lost my job, but certain managers and supervisors knew my kids were into football. They could have just sacked me but they gave me chances, gave me extra rope to keep going. That helped me feed my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel is briefly overcome as he speaks of his mother, Elizabeth, and the car that kept breaking down. Elizabeth took out a \u00a310,000 ($13,500) loan from the bank and Nigel spent \u00a37,000 on a second-hand Ford Orion. \u201cWe felt like we were sorted again,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd she never wanted that money back. If it wasn\u2019t for her, I honestly don\u2019t think any of this would have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an extraordinary example of the parental devotion \u2014 spanning two generations \u2014 that goes into making a Lioness. The pay-offs for the England parents who doubled as their daughters\u2019 taxi drivers, chefs, psychologists, nutritionists, coaches and kit launderers defy comprehension. Reece and Lauren, for instance, became the first siblings to play for England\u2019s men\u2019s and women\u2019s senior teams.<\/p>\n

Between them, the parents who have spoken to The Athletic for this article have watched their daughters win the European Championship, the Champions League, play in the World Cup final, rack up Ballon d\u2019Or nominations and score in major tournaments. Each has done so to growing public interest and all that comes with it: adoration, criticism and faces on Panini stickers.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Euros win in 2022 amplified it all, and no doubt the parents who lived through it will have reassurances for\u200b those experiencing their first tournament in Switzerland this summer.<\/p>\n

Joanne Stanway, mother of midfielder Georgia, recalls the emotions of watching England through their Euros run. A primary school teacher, she could not go to the quarter-final against Spain in person because her school would not let her miss her own retirement celebration assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just an awful game to watch,\u201d she says quietly from the sofa of an Airbnb in Ulverston, Cumbria, a short drive from where Georgia grew up in Askam. \u201cI just felt really ill. I had to get up and walk around. Then she scored. I cried out: \u2018Was it Georgia?!\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final at Wembley was worse. \u201cI had to completely switch off and pretend I wasn\u2019t there, that she was just playing in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The park was where it all began, in the days when a career as a female footballer was a remote possibility and the rewards, financial or otherwise, were small. So why do it? And how could the families prepare for what ultimately came to pass when their daughters were breaking new ground as the first generation to play in a fully professional English league, the first England Women players to win a major trophy and the first to come of age amid multi-million-pound broadcast deals?<\/p>\n

Talking to them, there is a sense that these parents are reckoning in real-time with the paths that football has led them down. \u201cIt feels odd thinking, \u2018That\u2019s my daughter\u2019,\u201d says Julie Hemp, mother of Manchester City\u2019s Lauren. \u201cAs her parents, I am aware we do not celebrate her achievements as much as we should. I think it\u2019s because she achieved so much so young that it became the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Mead still lives just a few minutes from the park and industrial estate where his daughter Beth would play, a crossbar slapped in paint across a garage door. The loft houses suitcases of scrapbooks from each season of Beth\u2019s career. His late wife, June, saved the hospitality wristbands from each England game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could hardly believe at the time what was happening,\u201d he says of the Euros win in 2022<\/a>. \u201cWhen the final whistle went, it was the proudest moment of our lives. You\u2019re just proud to see \u2014 I call her my baby girl \u2014 doing what she loves and getting the recognition for it. That\u2019s all we worked for.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Beth turned 16 and signed for Sunderland, she and Richard would make the 135-mile round trip three times a week, having already spent years making the 50-mile round trip to Middlesbrough. June, who already worked full time in a school, took on extra work in a pub and fish and chip shop to pay for the petrol and a second car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be home first and I\u2019d do the tea, then June would go straight back out and I\u2019d look after the kids,\u201d Richard says. A coach at California Boys, one of Beth\u2019s first clubs, had told Richard his daughter would grow up to play for England. \u201cAnd we were like, \u2018Yeah, right-o\u2019,\u201d he remembers. \u201cBut you always have that hope. And while you\u2019ve got that, you\u2019re willing to do whatever you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce she showed that talent, you just had to do what you could do for her. That was it. As parents, you\u2019ve got to sacrifice things to help your children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Manchester United captain Maya Le Tissier faced the added complication of growing up in Guernsey, the Channel Island with a population of less than 70,000. Her father Darren had been among the coaches trying to forge an elite pathway there and had connections to Southampton, whose academy manager, Terry Moore, suggested Maya trial in England. Maya could not be part of the formal pathway at Hampshire because of where she lived but was invited to train.<\/p>\n

Maya\u2019s childhood friend, Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, was playing for Southampton\u2019s academy. Every three weeks, the pair would spend a week in England, finishing schoolwork in their hotel rooms. \u201cThere was a banqueting suite upstairs and they would kick a ball around that area,\u201d Darren says. \u201cThey\u2019d put chairs out and play keepy-ups over them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maya Le Tissier and her younger brother Harvey meet Southampton defender Luke Shaw, now Maya\u2019s club-mate at Manchester United (Le Tissier family)<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWe were spending \u00a315,000 a season, minimum.\u201d Flights, accommodation and car hire would total over \u00a3500 a trip. A Guernsey fund administration company sponsored Maya to the tune of \u00a33,000 a year. \u201cThe island\u2019s elite athletes know where they come from because somebody in Guernsey has helped them \u2014 because that stretch of water is so expensive to bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the while, Maya\u2019s twin brother, Theo, remained home with whichever parent had not travelled. \u201cTo live in your sister\u2019s shadow and get on with your life\u2026 it\u2019s one of the biggest credits I can ever give Theo,\u201d Darren says. \u201cHe could have moaned: \u2018It\u2019s always about her\u2019. Never did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanway found football aged three via older brother John-Paul, who trained on the field behind Joanne\u2019s house on Litchmead Grove. She and Georgia\u2019s father, Paul, were separated and both full-time teachers. Joanne was a runner who held the 400-metre record at Leigh Harriers & Athletic Club until it was broken by Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson<\/a>. Paul was a county footballer and cricketer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joanne Stanway lived in a house on Litchmead Grove and the gardens backed onto Furness rugby union\u2019s first-team pitch, which Georgia Stanway used for her training (The Athletic)<\/p>\n

At 11, Stanway aged out of mixed football<\/a> and the scant network of decent girls\u2019 teams locally left the four-hour round trip to Blackburn Rovers as the best option. Georgia\u2019s parents split the twice-weekly trips, which became 9pm sessions four times a week once Stanway reached the first team at 16. En route, Stanway would do her homework, eat and sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big commitment at 11,\u201d says Joanne, who had hoped to wait until Georgia was 15 or 16, only for a Lancashire FA representative to question where Stanway had been after she stopped playing football for a year because of the lack of good girls\u2019 teams. \u201cThen the parental guilt comes,\u201d says Joanne. \u201c\u2019Am I doing the right thing? Should I wait?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she kept pestering. She was like a rottweiler. She just wouldn\u2019t let it go. On the way back, I used to play a bit of opera \u2014 something really calming \u2014 and she would sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family received \u00a3250 from the local council \u2014 that covered about 10 journeys to Blackburn \u2014 and \u00a3500 from the Cumbria branch of the FA but Joanne downsized their home twice to release some money. \u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t keep up this pace and work until I was 60 or 65, but I could not afford to go part-time,\u201d she says. \u201cI found myself wishing\u2026 not wishing your life away, but just wishing that things would slow down, that I would gain back some control of what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling shattered. It was just give, give, give. My colleagues used to laugh at me because I nearly fell asleep in a meeting. I went through a period where I didn\u2019t want to get back in the car again. I just spent so much time there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanne comes across as shy and humble but she has a steely mentality. \u201cI thought about looking after myself a bit more,\u201d she says, \u201cdoing little things I wanted to do, like listening to a piece of music I liked. There wasn\u2019t any provision for parents, no indoor space. You\u2019d just be sitting in your car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would probably still do it all over again even if she didn\u2019t make it. Because you just do, for your children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joanne Stanway on Askam Pier, where Georgia and family friends used to have kickabouts and picnics on the beach (The Athletic)<\/p>\n

Julie Hemp\u2019s daughters Lauren, now 24, and Amy both played at Norwich\u2019s centre of excellence. Three times a week for five years, she would watch for four hours. They would return home at 9pm. Each Saturday, Julie and husband Kevin \u201cwould have to alternate our time between games so we could see them both play, praying neither of us missed anything special\u201d, she remembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people who knew Amy and Lauren then would tell you Amy was actually a better footballer before she got injured,\u201d Julie says, but anterior cruciate ligament injuries<\/a> derailed her career. \u201cIt was always a dream of mine to have both girls play for England: one on the left and one on the right,\u201d Julie adds. \u201cI have been very lucky to have at least half a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren was in Norwich\u2019s under-13s when a career in women\u2019s football was first mooted by Ian Thornton, who headed up the centre. At a coaching session with 200 girls a few years later, the coach warned that only one of them would make a career in football.<\/p>\n

The Hemps faced a major stumbling block when the centre of excellence closed while Lauren was 15. She returned to North Walsham\u2019s boys\u2019 team while Julie \u201cdid a huge amount of research trying to find a club that could provide an education and a pathway to women\u2019s football as a career\u201d. Following advice from the FA, she emailed several clubs and had leads in Nottingham, Reading and Bristol. At the Nottingham trial, Lauren met Lionesses Ellen White and Laura Bassett but the educational component was lacking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lauren Hemp winning an award during her junior career (Hemp family)<\/p>\n

Bristol City was the best fit, with the plan for Hemp to train with the academy, live with a host family and complete a sports qualification at college. \u201cWe knew that most of the senior team had other jobs to support their wages from playing football and for her to earn money from playing seemed odd,\u201d says Julie. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something we had really thought about because until she was 18, she wouldn\u2019t get offered a contract anyway. A few weeks later, she made her first-team debut and scored her first professional goal at 16.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Le Tissiers had the same determination but no map for a more disjointed journey from Guernsey. There were so few girls\u2019 teams on the island that they had \u201cno idea what the standard was\u201d, Darren says. \u201cYou have this feeling something might happen, but you didn\u2019t know. So you were just doing all you could for Maya. The whole thing was stepping into the unknown, making it up, always hoping that something would work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looked like it was crashing down when Hampshire abruptly pulled the plug on Maya\u2019s attendance when the licence transferred from the Hampshire Football Association to Southampton FC (Hampshire had temporarily run the centre of excellence following Southampton\u2019s relegation from the Premier League). Darren says the family were told Maya needed to attend more regularly or not at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got an extremely talented individual and you\u2019re just going to turn her away, are you?\u201d Darren says. \u201cShe gets to 18 and she just stops playing football? Maya was absolutely devastated, completely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around this time, the FA set up monthly regional camps for girls outside the catchment areas of established women\u2019s academies.<\/p>\n

After the \u201cinitial fury\u201d subsided, the family pulled together enough football to keep Maya ticking over, including England camps, until she finished her GCSEs and could look further afield. \u201cThe whole thing would have capsized if they didn\u2019t open those areas,\u201d Darren says. \u201cThey\u2019d have lost Maya. There\u2019s a whole wave of talent that gets missed just because they can\u2019t access clubs. If they\u2019re a boy, they get taxied out. If they\u2019re a girl, it\u2019s just not happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would all turn up to their England camps in their Arsenal and Chelsea tracksuits and Maya turned up in a Guernsey tracksuit. Everyone was looking at her, thinking, \u2018What the hell\u2019s that?\u2019. She literally didn\u2019t care. It was that belief: I\u2019ll show you. She was like this hybrid thing that came from nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maya Le Tissier with family members, including father Darren, right (Le Tissier family)<\/p>\n

Lauren James never needed to declare that she would be a footballer. \u201cIt was more a case of: this is all she was going to do. There was nothing else,\u201d Nigel says. \u201cIt was not up for debate. You would not even ask her that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

James grew up playing with England international Conor Gallagher and England youth international Jacob Maddox<\/a>. She also benefited from having two older brothers trying to make it in the sport themselves and they would include her in games with their friends, many of whom were also playing in academies. \u201cIt was not a case of dragging a sister along, Lauren was just part of the gang,\u201d Nigel continues. \u201cShe was the baby sister to all of them, but when they had a kickaround it was at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lover of flair players, Nigel wanted Lauren to be comfortable on the ball and inventive above all else. As well as training at Chelsea in her early years, she would attend a weekly two-hour session at the academy he runs, Nigel James Elite Coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very careful who actually worked with Lauren,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want her to work with someone who would take something away by saying: \u2018You are too greedy \u2014 you need to pass the ball more\u2019. I did not want anyone coaching the flair out of Lauren. For example, I would put on small two or three three-minute games and say: \u2018Try to score five goals. Be greedy. Don\u2019t pass. Take them on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lauren James left, and brother Reece, right, after a session at their dad\u2019s academy (James family)<\/p>\n

James was just 16 when she moved into senior football, presented with offers from West Ham United, which would have kept her local, or Manchester United, who were in the process of launching their women\u2019s team. After several meetings, Nigel felt the then Manchester United head coach, Casey Stoney, was \u201cthe perfect person I could trust with my kid who was going to be a long way away from home for the first time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to go up at least twice a week, which included staying over,\u201d Nigel says. \u201cReece was on loan at Wigan in 2018-19, so it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the pandemic happened. Lauren moved from digs with a host family to a studio flat on her own. She only saw her family via FaceTime and would cry at night. \u201cIn this scenario, you have to bring your baby home,\u201d Nigel continues. \u201cThere was a time when I was even thinking about moving to be closer to her. It made me think, this or something else could happen again and I want to make sure my daughter is closer to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the only reason we left Manchester United. It was nothing to do with anything at the club; it was bigger than that. We loved Manchester United. Every one of those supporters who give her stick would do the same thing if they had a child in that situation. And when she joined Chelsea to work with Emma Hayes, it was like Lauren went from one mother (Casey Stoney) to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanway\u2019s career changed on the day she walked through her front door, wearing her school uniform and carrying her rucksack, to find the Manchester City manager Nick Cushing in her living room. He wanted Stanway for his first team, and the club would pay for her to attend local private school St Bede\u2019s with its boys\u2019 academy players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were just having a little chat about how we can move forward,\u201d Joanne continues. \u201cI didn\u2019t realise there were already things in place. I couldn\u2019t speak to anybody else whose daughter was in the same situation because there was just nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s team-mates would include former England captain Steph Houghton and Toni Duggan. \u201cThey were Georgia\u2019s idols,\u201d says dad Paul, sitting in a room decorated with Stanway\u2019s framed England shirts. Did they feel they had a generational talent on their hands and had to do something with it? \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d says Paul. \u201cWe\u2019d have regretted it forever. And Georgia would have resented us if we\u2019d stopped her from making that move.\u201d<\/p>\n

The then-England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley took Stanway out to the cinema on her first weekend away from home. \u201cI\u2019ve never thanked Karen for that,\u201d says Joanne.<\/p>\n

When Mead turned professional at Sunderland, June negotiated the contract because Beth did not have an agent. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any experience of it whatsoever, but players going onto contracts was all new at the time anyway,\u201d says Richard. Julie, meanwhile, rang Cushing herself once she heard of City\u2019s interest in Lauren and arranged the visit to Manchester for a tour. \u201cHe was on the coach back from an away fixture,\u201d Julie recalls. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe I was talking to him and I felt a little stupid, to be honest. An agent wasn\u2019t something we had even thought about. She was only 17 and we had no idea about wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanne had just finished decorating Stanway\u2019s bedroom blue and white, \u201cjust the way she wanted it\u201d, when her daughter was uprooted from Barrow to Manchester to live with a host family. \u201cI don\u2019t think she slept many nights in it,\u201d Joanne remembers. \u201cAnd then she was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

They watched senior players arrive in their sports cars on their first visit to City. \u201cI remember asking her: \u2018Shall we have a look at your accommodation? And she said: \u2018No, Mum \u2014 you have to go. I was like: \u2018Oh. OK\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the drive back home, Joanne had to pull over at a service station. \u201cI was just in floods of tears,\u201d she says. \u201cI never told her that until later on. I composed myself, drove off and said to myself: \u2018She wants to do this\u2019. She didn\u2019t even look back \u2014 my daughter that I spent hours and hours in the car with\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Georgia Stanway\u2019s family watched as she went from football-mad child to representing England (Stanway family)<\/p>\n

The Mead family, meanwhile, were contending with Beth\u2019s anxiety, and the stubbornness of a daughter reluctant to leave her comfort zone. Her homesickness while on England camps as a teenager was so acute that she threw her kit in the bin to demonstrate to her parents how much she was suffering. Before a match with the under-17s in Poland, Beth\u2019s anxiety manifested in stomach aches and coaches sent her home over fears she had a bug that could infect the team. June and Richard had non-refundable flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cJune was the one who calmed Beth down and reassured her in those moments,\u201d Richard says. \u201cThere was no point having a go at her because we didn\u2019t want to put her off permanently. We\u2019d try to put different things in place for the next time she went away. June would put letters in her baggage just to say we\u2019re thinking of her and we\u2019re proud of her to reassure her, more than anything. June would sit down a lot with her and say: \u2018One step at a time. Get up in the morning and do your next thing, then your next thing\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

They flew to competitions in Belgium and the Netherlands to give Beth something to look forward to, and spent an entire tournament in Wales so Beth knew they were local. When Beth moved to Arsenal in 2017, successive injuries meant she was \u201cisolated a bit from the squad\u201d. Between them, Richard, June and Beth\u2019s agent would coordinate their schedules so each could \u201ctalk to her at different times\u201d on the phone.<\/p>\n

When Beth broke her collarbone and entered surgery, Richard drove to St Albans, took the train to London and arrived as she woke from the anaesthetic \u201cjust to be there for her, because there wasn\u2019t really anybody else\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went so she had a familiar face there as soon as she woke up,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe would jump in a car at any point if she needed us. Once she got comfortable at Arsenal, it was a lot easier for us because we knew she was happy. I\u2019ve been known to drive down on Friday, see her and drive back the following day. It\u2019s a 260-mile trip each way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Mead family on holiday when Beth was a child (left) and Beth with dad Richard after winning the BBC\u2019s Sports Personality of the Year award in 2022 (Mead family)<\/p>\n

During Lauren Hemp\u2019s first season at Bristol, she learned that Julie had cancer. \u201cI remember driving to Bristol to tell her my news,\u201d Julie says. Lauren had lost her grandfather a month before leaving Norfolk and would lose her nanny shortly after finding out about her mother\u2019s diagnosis. \u201cI do believe these traumatic experiences at such an early age have built a resilience within Lauren,\u201d Julie continues. \u201cThere was an Under-17s England camp coming up and they said they fully understood if she didn\u2019t want to go and wanted to come home. I made it clear to her that I wanted her to carry on as normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing her play football and wearing that captain\u2019s armband gave me so much enjoyment and pride that this helped me cope with what I had to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the 2018 Under-20s World Cup in France, a 17-year-old Lauren won two player of the match awards. From the stands, Julie, who had just received the all-clear, was close to tears, thinking I could have easily missed out on this wonderful experience. Lauren even had her 18th birthday there. (Coach) Mo Marley allowed me to go to the hotel as a surprise to share it with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up has brought a role reversal as players find themselves better equipped to deal with the increased scrutiny than their parents. \u201cSometimes, it\u2019s upsetting to see what things can be said, but Beth says: \u2018Just ignore it. I\u2019m OK, Dad, so you be OK\u2019,\u201d explains Richard. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to respect your kids and the profile they\u2019ve got. You tend to support each other.\u201d Richard observes that Beth is \u201ca lot stronger\u201d since June\u2019s passing in the days after Beth was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk every day, but she can sort a lot of her own problems out. She knows what\u2019s best for her. She\u2019s probably a lot more strong-minded than me. She\u2019s probably got her mam\u2019s mentality that way; I\u2019ve always just been an encourager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their daughters\u2019 independence has allowed the parents to relinquish some responsibility after so long steering the ship. Joanne Stanway is currently travelling, finally free to do so. \u201cI always describe it as a bus journey,\u201d says Joanne. \u201cWhen they\u2019re young, you\u2019re driving the bus. As they get older, more people get on and you end up sitting as one of the passengers. It almost felt like, when she went to Manchester City, I was still stuck at the bus stop waving at the bus because it just completely changed. You have to have trust in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every parent of a talented young athlete will recognise the miles on the road, hours watching training, the financial and emotional burden. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate because there are a million and one families, parents of boys and girls, who\u2019ve done similar or more, whose kids have not been successful,\u201d says Paul Stanway. \u201cYou don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to go to World Cups and win the Euros. You just do it because your daughter wants to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Simon Johnson<\/p>\n

(Top photos: Mead family, Stanway family, James family and Hemp family; design: Eamonn Dalton)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel James thinks back to one night shift he worked following an 11am game his son Reece played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,562,588,574,66,561,323,21786,1418],"class_list":{"0":"post-27442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chelsea","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-premier-league","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-wildlife","16":"tag-womens-euros","17":"tag-womens-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}